Back to Products Web MediaMasterTM (Patent Pending) Overview Users of the World Wide Web are buried under masses of data. The efficient search capabilities now available and the ever-expanding number of Web sites produce not thousands but millions of references to Web pages. Currently, there exists no unified way for a user to catalogue and codify information found on the World Wide Web. Browser bookmarks store specific Web page addresses in a text list, but offer minimal facility for documenting and organizing such information. Moreover, browsers only remember an entire page that commonly contains only one or a few items of interest. Web MediaMaster is a user-friendly tool that allows Internet users to capture any "object" from a Web page including text, images, videos, sounds, and Flash movies, to organize them with drawing tools, and to publish the resulting presentation as an email attachment or Web page. Web MediaMaster allows specific relevant objects from a Web site to be collected into categories for use in building presentations, databases, and Web sites. Although Web MediaMaster can be used independently of the Internet, it is especially useful with a browser, bringing order to the mass of information available on the Web. Web MediaMaster is useful in every field that can benefit from collecting data from multiple sources, organizing the results, and sharing the information as a presentation. Just a few areas that could benefit from Web MediaMaster are: Financial: investment banking research analyst reports, industry and stock tracking reports, mutual fund comparisons, tax implication reports, etc. Legal: Law case briefs, case law summaries, litigation strategy collaborations, patent and intellectual property research, etc. Education: lesson plan building, test and quiz preparation, collecting enrichment data, Web research assignments, etc. Publishing: ancillary data for school and university textbooks, e-book preparation, photojournalist and journalist information collection and organization, etc. Advertising: collaborative advertising design, consumer statistics collection, distributed ad copy approval, etc. Federal, state, and local government: preparation of budgets, documenting claims, collecting data for proposals, structuring legislation, etc. Consumer: sports fans statistics collection, consumer product comparisons, diet information, family photo scrapbooks, etc. How Web MediaMaster Works The drawing below illustrates the operation and use of Web MediaMaster. Multimedia content found on the Web or on any other source of digital data (such as a desktop, a local network or extranet) can be dragged-and-dropped into a named collection folder in Web MediaMaster. Once collected, this data can then be annotated, organized, laid out, displayed or printed as desired, and re-used in other presentations. Collected objects and collection groups can be stored locally to create a personal research database. This can be drawn upon to help author multiple types of documents ranging from product comparisons to research reports to simple e-books. Objects and their authors can be annotated and ranked. For repeat uses, templates can be created to further improve productivity. The product also has built in functionality that provides easy preparation of bibliographies and help in preventing plagiarism.   Web MediaMaster is user-friendly and intuitive to use. Whether for market research, electronic shopping or school projects, Web MediaMaster sets a new standard for gathering and organizing information from the Web. Collecting Objects from the Web The Web MediaMaster workspace consists of two main sections, Collections and Worksheets. Collections are catalogued lists of media objects collected from the Web or desktop, including text, images, audio, video, and other types of files. Objects are dragged and dropped into the Web MediaMaster Collection Icon that floats on top of other applications on the desktop. The user can select whether these objects are collected as files or references by type. Web MediaMaster also incorporates a screen capture feature. Tagging and Annotating Collected Objects Once all media objects of interest have been collected, they can be documented and categorized with tagged Note Cards. Each media object's Note Card can be viewed off-line. Media objects always retain their link back to the source URL. The sources and pertinence of collected media objects can be evaluated and ranked by assigning weights to each evaluation criterion listed on the Evaluation Form. These rankings can then be viewed and exported as HTML in a list of the objects in a Worksheet or Collection ordered according to the weighted average of the criteria on the Evaluation Form for each object. Making Presentations with Collected Objects The Worksheet is an area for building presentations. Objects from any Collection may be included by dragging and dropping them into the Worksheet, where they are represented as icons. The icons representing these objects may be expanded allowing each one to be read, viewed, or heard. The icons also store URL address information, so that the source location for the object on the Web can be revisited using a standard browser. Text objects are searchable. For example every instance of the word "price" can be found in the collected text objects, or alternatively, search for a specific URL can be made. Web MediaMaster also includes drawing and text tools allowing background colors or images, lines, shapes and text to be added to the multimedia object collection to annotate and further organize a presentation. For instance, a circle can be drawn around the most interesting job postings collected and text notes can be added next to each posting with to-dos and follow-ups. Web MediaMaster also allows the creation of templates for commonly used pages. For instance, a teacher can create a blank page template that asks his students to collect objects from the Web that support and contradict some theory. Objects that support the theory might be collected in a box on the right of the Worksheet, while those that contradict the theory might be collected on the left. Stronger arguments might be placed toward the top of the page, weaker ones toward the bottom. Web MediaMaster may be used to create multiple-page worksheets. For example, one worksheet could be used to store and organize information pertaining to a history term paper; another, job postings, still another, audio clips of a favorite band. One example of commercial use could be collection of financial data about a particular company for distribution to clients by brokers. It would be a simple matter to have a template for each company as the basis for making customized versions for individual clients that highlight various aspects of the data. Sharing Presentations and Making Web Pages Worksheets and Collections can be exported independently as HTML for upload to the Web or for sharing with a friend or colleague. In fact, HTML Worksheets can be used to create personal Web sites. They can also be e-mailed to other Web MediaMaster users in Web MediaMaster format or exported for reading using a browser. Exporting a Collection makes a list of its media objects a single HTML file, plus an associated folder of image icons. When opened in a browser, the HTML page will show a table of objects from the Collection containing the Collection name and the name, size, date collected, and URL of each media object. The Sequencer is a tool included with Web MediaMaster that allows a user to view all Worksheets, select various ones and arrange them in a sequence. This named sequence can be opened in Web MediaMaster and viewed as a set of ordered pages. Advertising through Web MediaMaster The Web MediaMaster Collection/Worksheet page has room to display pushed advertisements that provide a sticky incremental revenue source for Web MediaMaster partners. Summary Web MediaMaster is a unique product, combining the functionality of a number of different programs - a media collector, a database, a presentation builder, and a presentation distributor - to create the first easy-to-use personal desktop multi-functional content collection, organization and publishing system. Web MediaMaster is a creativity-enhancer and productivity-booster for data collection, visual organization, research, publishing, teaching, comparative marketing, brainstorming, problem solving, document outlining and management, as well as many other tasks. It is a sophisticated, yet simple, desktop Web collection and publishing system that makes it possible for ordinary people to create all types of electronic works. Axa Solutions has filed for patent protection on Web MediaMaster to protect the convergence of features and capabilities that make it unique in the marketplace. © Copyright 2005, Axa Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.